Hosea 12:2-14 Indictment
It’s settled. God STILL loves Israel and Judah. He will not wipe them out. But their sins are written down in an indictment. It MUST be satisfied.
God takes us back through a brief look at Israel’s history. Of the times that He spoke or met with them. Abraham is the father of the nation but Jacob is its establishment of form and divisions. Jacob had issues! He was not an innocent or perfect choice for a founder of a godly nation. He was striving with his brother from birth. He manipulated his brother’s weaknesses. He tricked his father. He listened to his mother’s schemes and followed them. He favored one child above all the rest. He fed into the sibling rivalry between his children.
Yet, he loved God. He taught his sons of the Lord. He maintained his promises of faithfulness. He desired God’s blessing and served faithfully to receive it. He didn’t give up, even in the face of deceit from others. His sins were atoned for by changes in his life. And, because he was willing to listen, God used him in a unique way.
God used the prophets throughout the history of Israel and Judah to guide them and to bring them back to His path. There were times when they listened, but MANY more where they didn’t. Those times of rebellion were not swept under the rug as though they never happened. There was mercy and forgiveness but the wounds were still carried and kept in their history.
Israel hardened her heart to God’s prophets while considering herself ‘righteous’. From the beginning there were problems. God threatened to wipe them out and start over several times on their journey to the Promised Land. Not because He was being mean, but because they were so rebellious. One would think they would learn their lesson but they didn’t. They plastered over their stubbornness until it cracked again later and released havoc.
When God gave Israel His Law, He gave them remission for their sins. Their sins were covered by the blood of animals that gave their lives for Israel’s continued mercy. But layer upon layer, they added up. I was given a picture of a ceiling. This ceiling developed cracks. Those cracks were patched. It developed even more cracks and those cracks were patched too. Over time there were so many patches on top of patches that the weight of the patches brought the whole thing down on the heads of those it was meant to shelter.
Sin was the cracks. Sacrifices were the patches. But the sins kept occurring and growing worse, to the point that no patch could cover them. Israel had come to a place where she wasn’t even trying to patch over her sins. Instead, she saw herself as sinless. But she was ROLLING IN IT! Covered from head to toe in filth. There was no patching this. It required a COMPLETE rebuild.
God was NOT giving up on Israel. He was starting over with her. He had to let the ceiling fall on her so she would acknowledge the truth, then start fresh again. His willingness to start again is AMAZING! Some would expect a wrecking crew to come in, demolish the old, sweep it away, and build something else with brand new materials.
Jesus’ blood is not like the sacrifice of animals. His blood washes away our sin. It’s not a patch, it’s a new beginning. This does NOT mean that we can sin, ask forgiveness, and turn around and do the same thing over again. When there is no change there is no repentance and there is no forgiveness.
This is actually where Israel was at the time. Even when she did say ‘sorry’, she didn’t mean it because there was no change; putting away the sin. The record, indictment, of her sins stood because they had NOT ceased. And it was time for judgment because the weight of those sins was destroying the very thing God loved.
There is a final judgment coming for all. What will our indictment look like? Will it be washed with Jesus’ blood or will it be so full that it is falling over? When that final judgment comes, there will be no ‘starting over’ to try and do better next time. It will be a final reconning. That indictment will be the difference between eternal life and eternal death. Address the ‘list’ OFTEN! Don’t let it grow into a stone around your neck.
Come to Jesus EVERY TIME you fall. Come with TRUE repentance. Come with a heart ready for remodeling. And let the lessons learned in each experience remain with you to keep you from walking right back into the muck and mire of sin.
Father God, I know I have done the ‘not quite ready to give up the sin’ repentance at times. Sometimes it was a process to get me to the place where I was ready. It took hard borne lessons to bring me to that place. THANK YOU for each of them! THANK YOU for not giving up on me!!! Help me Lord to walk in Your ways. Even in the middle of what I’m dealing with now, help me to have YOUR right spirit in me. I have a hard time listening to vengeful thinking and not joining in with it. PLEASE, take that out of my heart! Let me look for justice only. Nothing more and nothing less. Lead me in how and where to seek that justice for the indictment is long!
